InvEnergy LLC, a Chicago-based, privately held energy company, is eying more than 10,000 acres across Wyoming, Allegany, and Cattaraugus counties that will serve as development sites for 83 wind turbines. Also, InvEnergy - through its Alle-Catt Wind Energy affiliate - will be investing $1.2 billion in the project.
The largest portion is a $618.8 million investment the company wants to spend to build 38 wind turbines in such Cattaraugus County towns as Farmersville, Freedom, and Yorkshire. The project hinges on a set of incentives under review by the County of Cattaraugus IDA directors when they meet on Feb. 7.
All of the sites in all three counties are on private property, which will be leased, and none are in the water, said Corey Wiktor, County of Cattaraugus IDA executive director.
The spin-off impact could be huge.
“Obviously, this project would utilize local labor as well as suppliers, subcontractors, and a whole gamut of trucking and aggregate work. You try to maximize that spin-off economy due to the construction of the project,” Witkor said.
At $618.8 million, the project is the second largest private sector-backed development in Cattaraugus County’s history, dwarfed only by the $750 million Great Lakes Cheese plant under construction in Franklinville.
Wiktor says he has been working with InvEnergy on this project for more than one year.
“It's all about location with the wind, and if you are eligible to be off Lake Erie. I've learned a lot about wind maps and what constitutes good wind and bad wind and marginal wind, and really it's high peaks in alignment off Lake Eries,” Witkor said.
Construction is expected to start this spring, and all 83 wind turbines should be fully developed within the next two years.
